Su Xian froze for a moment, her face filled with anger.
“What sort of nonsense did your maternal grandmother fill your head with?”
“She’s already that old, yet she has no shame!”
Su Xian’s face flushed red, and she felt deeply embarrassed on her mother’s behalf.
Duoduo suddenly had the uneasy feeling that she might have said something wrong. She nervously tugged at Su Xian’s sleeve.
“Mother, I want a little brother!”
Su Xian stood rooted to the spot.
Behind them, Lianxin and Lüdou hurriedly lowered their heads, pretending they had heard nothing.
“You two, move farther away!” Su Xian ordered once she had recovered.
“Yes.”
Lianxin and Lüdou retreated more than ten paces, then turned their backs.
Su Xian took Duoduo by the hand and walked a few steps farther, stopping only after she was certain the two maids could no longer hear them.
She crouched down so that she was eye to eye with Duoduo.
“Duoduo, tell Mother the truth. Did your father say something to you?”
Su Xian thought of what had happened the previous day, and her face flushed with embarrassment and agitation.
Duoduo tilted her head and studied Su Xian’s expression.
“Mother, I want a little brother.”
“I already promised Father that as long as you give birth to one, I’ll raise him!”
“I promise I’ll teach him to be obedient and sensible. He absolutely won’t become a burden to me!”
Duoduo’s face was full of earnestness, her expression solemn.
Su Xian stared into Duoduo’s clear, innocent eyes and began thinking quickly.
She had been married to her husband for several years and knew his temperament better than anyone.
Yet yesterday, he had been more fierce and vigorous than even on their wedding night.
A faint suspicion began to take shape in Su Xian’s heart.
“Duoduo, did you perhaps…” Su Xian considered her wording.
“Did your father yesterday…”
The words reached her lips, but she still could not bring herself to say them.
She could hardly believe what she was thinking herself.
She already vaguely understood that her husband’s unusual behavior yesterday must have had something to do with Duoduo.
And the reason he had punished Duoduo today must have been the same.
If Duoduo had dared to drug her father yesterday simply to satisfy her own desires, then what even more outrageous thing might she do tomorrow?
It seemed her husband had not punished her unfairly after all.
Duoduo truly did need to be taught a proper lesson.
Su Xian looked at Duoduo with a complicated expression.
“You just want a little brother?”
She asked the question with great difficulty.
Duoduo nodded vigorously.
“Mm! Mother, do you want one?”
Seeing how serious Duoduo looked, Su Xian pressed her lips together.
Her feelings were a tangled mess. In the end, she could not hold herself back and raised her hand, giving Duoduo a light smack on the bottom.
The moment she did it, Su Xian regretted it.
Only moments ago, she had been lecturing her husband about using reason and not resorting to force to solve problems.
Yet she had just struck Duoduo herself!
Duoduo stared at her in stunned disbelief.
Although Su Xian’s touch had been so light it was practically like brushing dust away, Duoduo was certain that her mother had hit her.
She did not understand. What had she done wrong?
Why were both her father and mother hitting her?
Duoduo pouted and lowered her head sadly.
She had cried so much earlier that she could no longer produce any tears.
Su Xian had originally intended to harden her heart and continue lecturing Duoduo, but the moment she saw the child’s sorrowful expression, she felt sorrowful as well.
Unable to bear it, Su Xian pulled Duoduo into her arms.
“Mother hit you to tell you that you did something wrong.”
Duoduo’s body stiffened. She held her neck rigidly and said, “I did not do anything wrong!”
Su Xian was both angry and heartbroken.
“You’re usually such a clever child. Why are you being so stubborn about this?”
“You’re wrong because you acted recklessly and did whatever you pleased!”
“You wanted a little brother today, so you dared to do that to your father…”
“If you develop an even greater ambition tomorrow, will you give your father and mother a packet of poison?”
Su Xian looked at her with exasperation, as though frustrated by a child who refused to live up to her potential.
Duoduo froze. Then a wounded expression appeared on her face.
“I wouldn’t!”
Su Xian released her and looked into her eyes.
“How old are you? You’re not even six by the traditional reckoning, yet you already dare to act recklessly simply because you know medicine.”
“Tell me, when you’re sixteen, or twenty-six, will you become completely lawless?”
Duoduo’s expression turned stubborn.
“I wouldn’t!”
No matter how Su Xian tried to reason with her, Duoduo continued to refuse to admit that she had done anything wrong.
At last, Su Xian understood how her husband must have felt.
Duoduo truly needed to be taught a proper lesson.
Only now did Su Xian finally understand what Xu Jinxin had meant when she said that having a child was not a simple matter.
Feeding them, clothing them, and dealing with their bodily needs were all minor concerns.
The most important thing was their education—and that was not something that could be accomplished overnight.
Every stage of a child’s growth brought different problems.
It was like Tang Sanzang’s journey to the West: there were always more demons to defeat.
Raising a child was the same.
Su Xian remembered how well-behaved and sensible Duoduo had been when she first arrived at the prince’s residence.
But now?
She had actually become bold enough to drug them!
This was utterly outrageous!
A look of disappointment appeared in Su Xian’s eyes.
She had been too busy lately and had relaxed her discipline, which was why Duoduo had changed so much.
As the old saying went, “If a child is not taught, it is the father’s fault.”
Duoduo had become like this because both she and The Prince had failed in their responsibilities.
With that thought, Su Xian calmed herself. She took Duoduo to a nearby stone bench and sat down with her.
“Duoduo, when you did this, did you ask your father and mother for our opinions?”
“This is not something that concerns you alone.”
“I understand that you want a little brother and someone you can depend on.”
“But this matter concerns both your father and mother. Shouldn’t you have asked what we thought first?”
“By acting first and informing us afterward, you made us feel that you didn’t respect us.”
Su Xian did her best to explain gently why Duoduo had been wrong.
Duoduo had been holding her neck stiffly, her face full of stubbornness.
But when she heard Su Xian’s words, her resistance slowly began to melt away.
At last, she understood why her father and mother were so angry.
It was because she had acted on her own and crossed a line.
But she had clearly done it for their sake.
Could that be wrong, too?
Duoduo picked at her palm.
“But I did it for Father’s sake.”
Seeing Duoduo’s dejected appearance, Su Xian felt a complicated ache in her heart. She reached out and stroked the child’s head.
“Sometimes, people use the excuse of doing something for someone else’s good because they want to control that person’s life.”
Su Xian’s words carried a hidden meaning.
Duoduo understood that her mother was talking about her maternal grandmother.
Duoduo shook her head.
“Mother, I’m not like that.”
“I heard Grandmother mocking you and Father for not having a son to rely on. She said that since I’m not your biological daughter, once I marry and leave, you and Father will grow old all alone.”
“She also said that because Father doesn’t have a son, he willingly gave up the chance to become regent when it was practically placed right in front of him.”
“I don’t want you and Father to grow old alone!”
“I don’t want Father to give up an opportunity that was within his grasp!”
“Father is clearly the most capable of them all!”
